Rafting company was on probation when 11-year-old boy drowned

The rafting company Drake Durkee's grandparents chose for what would become the 11-year-old's last outing was on its second summer of probation for violating state regulations and had been warned it could lose its permit unless it improved.

That information, though, was something the boy's family could not have known by looking at the company's glossy brochure, the walls in its Buena Vista office or on the websites of the state parks department or the headquarters of the Arkansas River. The probationary status was not even mentioned in the state's investigative report on Drake's death.

Drake and his grandfather were tossed into the fast-flowing river June 10, 2015, at Big Drop Rapid near Salida. As an Adventure Company guide rescued Drake's grandfather, the boy was entrapped by an undercut rock and never resurfaced. His body was found on the third day of searching, near the spot where his older brother last saw him bobbing in the rapids.

The Adventure Company was one of two commercial rafting companies placed on probation for the 2014 rafting season because of violations the prior year. Two other companies lost their permits to operate on the Arkansas River that year for repeated violations of state regulation.

Colorado Parks & Wildlife informed the Adventure Company in an April 2014 letter that its “performance from the last season” merited a one-year probation. The company had pleaded guilty in 2013 to eight counts of failure to maintain qualification records for its crew of guides running the Arkansas River. Citations are petty offenses, similar to traffic tickets, and can be challenged in court.

The letter warned that more than two consecutive seasons on probation would result in revocation of the company's permit to operate on the river.

About a year later in March 2015 and three months before Drake drowned, the state informed the Adventure Company it was on probation for a second season. The decision came after “closer scrutiny of their ability and willingness to operate in compliance,” according to the letter released through open records laws. During the 2014 rafting season, the company pleaded guilty to seven citations - four counts of failure to maintain trip leader records and three counts of operating a trip without a trip leader.

In June 2015, when the Arkansas was rushing at high flows, Drake was bounced out of the raft after the guide of his boat hit whitewater sideways instead of following the same line taken by the first two rafts in the four-boat, intermediate trip, according to witnesses interviewed by river rangers. The Adventure Company was blasted by rangers and Chaffee County Sheriff's officials in investigative reports because authorities said its guides refused to talk to rangers and deputies who arrived on scene.

Adventure Company owner Mark Hammer previously said some of his guides were too distraught for interviews immediately after the accident and that he told authorities multiple times where Drake had fallen out. The fifth-grader was missing within about eight seconds, and his foot was entrapped by a rock when he tried to stand up in the river, Hammer said.

Hammer declined to give an interview for this story, but said through email that "any citations that we received were for record-keeping and not for procedural or safety violations," adding that discrepancies exist between current rules and what the state previously accepted for guide records. "Our record with safety inspections and procedure is impeccable," Hammer said.

Drake's parents have sued the rafting company, claiming guides were negligent in taking their son and his grandfather, who could not swim, on Class III and IV rapids, for miscommunication when he went overboard, for not rescuing him and for delaying the discovery of their son's body by not immediately talking to rescuers. Drake's father walked 30 miles a day, up and down the river, calling for his son.

The rafting company received one citation after Drake's death: One guide's CPR certification had been earned online instead of in person. The ticket was later dropped after the company complained state regulations were too vague, and this year regulations were rewritten to clarify that CPR certification must include in-person training.

The company was not cited for failure to cooperate with the investigation, but state officials sent Hammer another letter last spring notifying him that after two years on probation, the company was on “immediate suspension” until Hammer attended a meeting with Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area officials.

On the agenda: “communication issues during ongoing search and rescue efforts” after Drake fell into the river.

Soon after that April meeting, the state notified the Adventure Company the suspension was repealed and the company was in “good standing,” according to a state e-mail released to The Post.

Kris Wahlers, boating safety education coordinator for Colorado Parks & Wildlife, said the suspension was dropped because there was “no other criminal fault” involved in Drake's death aside from the CPR citation, which was dismissed by the Chaffee County district attorney's office.

Parks and wildlife officials have not explored posting online when rafting outfitters are placed on probation, but they might, Wahlers said.

“We can certainly ask the question,” he said. “The more open that we are with things like that, the better it would be, but I don't know if it's even a possible.”

State officials would have to look into whether it is within regulations to publicly admonish outfitters by posting probation notices. Outfitters permitted to run the Arkansas are listed online, but there is no designation showing whether they are on probation.

Wahlers recalled the department receiving only one call regarding a rafting company's status — an out-of-state resident booking a trip to Colorado who wanted to know whether an outfitter was in good standing.

Dan Durkee, the boy's father, said he was “truly sickened” when he learned the company had prior violations.

“How would someone who had never been rafting know that they were putting themselves and their children in an extremely dangerous situation with an organization that had been put on probation multiple times for violating the very regulations designed to protect the public?” asked Durkee, who is the fire chief for Platteville-Gilcrest Fire Protection District.

Durkee said his in-laws were looking for a “safe, kid-friendly” trip and never would have chosen that company if they had known about prior violations. The fact the Adventure Company did not lose its license after Drake's death is “unbelievable and flat-out embarrassing for the state of Colorado,” he said.

Only a handful of rafting outfitters have lost their permits since the state began regulating the industry in 1985.

State regulations require a minimum of 50 hours on the river for guides, and rangers have authority to inspect river logs. Rules require every passenger to wear a life vest and that the raft contain rope, a first-aid kit, a patch-repair kit, drinking water and human-waste containers. Outfitters must report an injury or death immediately, though they often are not within cellphone range. After Drake went under, guides asked the next float trip down the Arkansas, from another company, to call for help downstream when they got a radio signal.

There is no set number of violations that triggers probation. Instead, rangers and other state parks officials meet periodically to review citations, considering severity and time frame. Three citations for no company logo on a raft is not as serious as three citations for passengers without life vests, for example.

Rafting outfitters said that violations or even probation do not necessarily mean the company is unsafe. “It's almost always an issue with paperwork and not operations on the river,” said Bill Dvorak, who runs Dvorak Expeditions in Nathrop and has not been on probation. “It's all right for (Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area) to be late with their paperwork but God forbid an outfitter be late.”

In the last three seasons, 18 people have died in Colorado on commercial rafting rips — including six this summer. The third high-water season in a row recently ended, claiming two deaths on the Arkansas and one each on the Roaring Fork, the Green, the Colorado and the Poudre. The deaths on the Colorado and Poudre did not involve flipped boats, but the victims "experiencing a sudden medical emergency" while on commercial raft trips, Wahlers said.

In a June accident with Clear Creek Rafting, a Florida woman lost consciousness after floating more than a mile downstream but was resuscitated on the river bank and survived. Nancy Beauchamp, 45, was blue and had no pulse when she was pulled from the river. She believes she would be dead if bystanders had not called 911.

Three months later, she can't shower because the spray hitting her face triggers a panic attack.

"They don't really tell you what can happen to you," she said. "Like me, for instance — I'm overweight and not in shape. I should have been told that trip wasn't for me. Same with two others in my raft. I can't swim but they said, ‘That's OK.'"

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